Influence {Five Minute Friday}

Maybe more important than who we are influencing is that we consider who we are influenced by at the same time.

Are our hearts being formed in Christlikeness or are we striving for what the world deems as important?

Are we putting stock in fearmongering or are we weighing in with grace, hope, and lovingkindness towards the problems we see in our daily lives?

Are we so concerned in defending ourselves that we forget to see the faces on the other side or are we caught up in the sheer humanity of every person on this planet reflecting back a different image of the God who saves?

There are many different ways we could come to terms with the idea of influence. We can get stuck in the circle of powers that be telling us how to be the most powerful or how to get people to do what we want and be our friends. We can love love love and hardly see the differences between us. We can get caught up in numbers or shoulds and shouldn’ts of marketing or expertise.

Or we can take the things we know for ourselves and share them in the most heartfelt way we know with the hearts around us.

We can consider the weight of our own words and actions in our hearts and their hearts.

We can choose to be the reflection of the shining truth of Jesus’ love as much as we can and try to point the way back when we fail in the over-again way we can’t seem to get past.

Maybe influencing is less about influencing and more about being formed ourselves.

Piece by piece.

In careful hope and joyous expectation that God will be the one who is glorified in serving the people around in our own state of becoming, but not there yet.